

27 



unforl unately, so that there is great waste in sawing, 



No. 280, medupu, yields a mahogany substitute. It 



and the volume is much less than one would expect from also has red resin-filled pores. It might be straighter- 



grained wiih advantage. 



No. 281, averavu, yields a white hardwood. The sap 



the heart 



such high trees. 



No. 278, haikaka, yields a useful timber, which when 

 worked up and polished would make a good mahogany wood becomes discoloured after a while, but 



substitute. No, 286, here, is the commonest canoe remams a Ver 7 clear whlte ' 



wood, except for ilimo, used in the Delta Division. 



No. 282, aoubu (Dysoxylon jissum) yields a scented 



No. 19, sabi, has already been mentioned, but here is wood, which works easily enough and has a mahogany 

 only found in the sago swamps, with No. 10, melila, as grain and texture. Its scent is like that of cedar. 



its companion. It does not grow large, nor is it 

 numerous. There appear to be two varieties — one with 



No, 283, pauka, yields a rather soft woolly pale wood, 



a very yellow wood, and the other with an almost white This wafl met with on the Venapa, No, 109, Namuta. 



No. 284, upia, yields a useful canoe wood. 



No. 285, kovo (Tcrminatia faveolaia), yields a very 

 porous, yet good coloured, brown wood. It works easily, 

 and would make 1 a good cabinet wood. 



wood. These on further examination may prove to be 

 distinct species. The bark and wood of both have the 

 same cinchona taste. 



Of the other trees already mentioned, No. 10, melila, 

 deserves special remark, because here it grows in 

 swampy country. Up to my visit to the delta, I had No. 287, hekakoro (Eugenia sp.) yields one of the 



found melila accommodating itself to very varied con- most beautiful cabinet woods in Papua. Jt is of a 



ditions of environment. I have recorded it on the steep golden-yellow colour, and through this sheen of gold 



foothills of the Ilydrographer's Range and on the hills ar e scattered lines of red. These red rings are quite 



behind Veimauri. It grows well on the higher ground irregular, so the figure of a piece of timber backed off 



just above the reach of the tide in Galley Reach. It is particularly arresting, Avhile the yellow and red lines 



thrives abundantly along the sea coast at no great dis- of ft quarter cut sample are beautiful enough also. 



tance from the shore. Here in the Delta Division it has 

 accommodated itself to the sago swamps, and attains 

 quite a large size in conditions that one would regard 

 as quite inimical to tree growth of any sort not pro- 



No. 288, buru-buru, yields a heavy constructional , 

 timber. 



Xo. 289, born (Celt is sp.) a cross-grained hardwood, 



vided with special apparatus. The melila have got over subject to fungus attacks that discolour it. 



the difficulty of living in water-logged ground by de- 

 veloping prop or aerial roots similar to those of a man- 

 grove; though not so accentuated, they are quite well 

 formed, and, seeing melila for the first time in such 

 an environment, one might be excused for writing it 

 down definitely as a prop-rooted swamp species. 



Little groups of melila, mixed with No. 19, sabi, 

 occur in all the sago swamps of the Baroi ; nowhere, 



No. 290, koreclapa (Fiats sp.), a noble looking tree 

 with very indifferent timber. 



No. 291, buria (Dysoxylum, near ccuilosf achy urn), 

 yields a very pretty brown cabinet wood of the ma- 

 hogany type, with a yellow sheen on the quarter. It is 

 easy to work. 



No. 292, komara, yields a yellow wood of rather 



however, are the trees very abundant, Elsewhere, I heavy and dense consistency. 



am informed by Mr. Lett, who has established a mill No> 293 equals No> 199> This was met with before 



on the Wami to cut timber from the Baroi and adjacent i n the Kumusi, in the northern division. 



waterways, there are commercial stands of melila. Such 



stands of so useful a durable wood should prove of 



value, and I am sorry that I did not come across any 



of them during my travels, and so am unable to give 



any information as to their composition, volume, and 



area. . 



No. 294, haiaka, yields a pale yellow wood, which 

 turns grey on drying, and shows a good walnut grain 

 on the back. 



No. 295, hiri, a pretty cabinet wood; works well. 

 Has a walnut grain on the back. 



No. 2, kaeda; No. 6, meneia; No. 13, sihu; No. 29, It i s quite clear that in a patch of timber of this 



devoru; No. 36, okaka ; No. 47, wai-am-a-hasi; are all s ? r *> } f th ^ saw-miller ^ fails ^to find^a market f or his 



old friends. Of the sixteen new ones, besides the two 

 mentioned above, several are of interest. 



No 



herikaka, is a conifer 



rpus 



iifol 



Its wood is identical with No. 238, 



but there may be some botanical difference, so I have 

 kept this "brown pine" separate for the present. It 

 grows as well as No. 238, which was found in the 

 Ilydrographer's Range, but is only a small tree and 

 unlikely to be of commercial interest. 



No. 276, ulawaipa. An interesting constructional 



timber — one of the few timbers of Papua that is heavier 

 than water. When seasoned, to 12 per cent, moisture 

 its specific gravity is 1.03. It is very hard, and dark 

 red-brown in colour. A number of the pores are filled 

 with a red resin, or it may be a gum. 



damoni and okamu timbers, he will have little hope of 

 disposing of the scattered species that remain. 



Camps were made in various other timber patches 

 no the river as far as the head of the delta, and down 

 to a few miles above the Wami, and the summaries of 

 all the surveys carried out will be found in Tables 

 and 



Two hundred and fifteen chains of traverse lines 

 were cut, and the strips therefore covered an area of 

 43 acres, or 4.3 of the total estimated area of the 

 Baroi timber. Everywhere on this stretch of the 

 river — some 25 miles — the conditions are the same. A 

 fringe of forest about 5 chains deep lines the bank; 

 beyond that is swamp. All the lines I cut away from 

 the river through these swamps revealed no high 



ground. The distribution and mixture of species in the 



fringe of forest was so similar in all four camps that 

 No. 277, harikou, yields a useful, rather light, easily- I hay e combined all four surveys under one summary, 

 worked cabinet wood. When fresh cut it has the smell This shows 193 trees ^ with a volume of 25,527 cubic 



of the South African much-prized stink wood. 



(u) Since compared and found identical botanically by Mr. C. T. White, 



F.12389.— 3 



feet, or 591 cubic feet to the acre, and 132 cubic feet 



per tree. As at the Ua Bend, the predominant species 



are damoni and okamu (see Table XXT.), but heri's 



